Watchdog seeks more action on transport safety

The federal transport safety watchdog said Thursday she has seen “little or no change” in critical air-safety issues, including runway overruns and aircraft-landing accidents.

Wendy Tadros, chairwoman of the Transportation Safety Board, first flagged these issues in 2010 when the board released its inaugural safety watchlist. They remain on this year’s watchlist alongside a new issue highlighting Transport Canada’s weak oversight of smaller aviation companies while they transition to safetymanagement systems (SMS), with “some companies not even required to have one,” the report says.

Under SMS, companies are supposed to identify hazards, manage risks and develop and follow safety processes, while the regulator is charged with making sure the internal systems are being followed and are working.

“What’s needed, what we’re calling for today, is more action. We want a concerted effort — more of a concerted effort — from Transport Canada and from our marine, rail and aviation industries. At the end of the day, they’re the people who can make the most difference, and so we want to them to take immediate steps to address both these new and persistent issues,” Tadros told reporters.

On rail safety, the board is sounding the alarm for the first time about the absence of a requirement for on-board video and voice records on trains.

In the marine sector, the board identified the same problem of sms oversight as with the aviation sector. The board “has repeatedly emphasized the advantages of safety management systems in the marine industry, citing deficiencies in many occurrences over the last 14 years,” the 2012 watchlist says.